For all those pro wrestling fans hankerin’ for something different than the usual WWE or TNA, keep your eyes peeled in the new year for the appearance of MTV’s Wrestling Society X project. It will begin airing Tuesday, January 30th at 10:30 p.m., running head-to-head with the WWE’s ECW program over its last half-hour.

Thus far, MTV has committed to ten episodes of the heavily-formulaic venture, which – along with featuring music as part of the appeal - apparently even had the audience members chosen by looks. God only knows what the action will be like, but Mr. Mal cringes whenever he hears stuff like that. It gives me a bad flashback to those horrible WCW tapings they used to do down at Universal Studios in the mid-90s, where the crowd was let in for free and would routinely perform the most-hokey “thumbs-down� poses for the villains, or “thumbs-up� for the faces. Gawd. Wrestling, while in need of guiding, cannot be too-scripted and still feel fresh, so – honestly? – I don’t hold out much hope for this new venture.

Nonetheless, look for stars like Vampiro (who also doubles as head writer) along with Sean Waltman (former 1-2-3 Kid; X-Pac; Syxx) Teddy Hart, Ruckus, Jack Evans, Matt Sydal, Lizzy Valentine, The Human Tornado, Colt Cabana, Dragon’s Gate stars Genki Horiguchi and Masato Yoshino, plus Jimmy Jacobs, Aaron Aguilera, Ricky Banderas, B-Boy and others. Bands signed-up thus far for the venture include Good Charlotte, New Found Glory and the Deftones. The shows were taped last month in California.

- Mr. Mal